Trump Says China ‘Not Easy’ As Trade Talks To Resume Tuesday

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Italian referendum proposals to ease citizenship laws and tighten job protection rules failed on Monday due to low voter turnout, YouTrend polling agency said, in a setback for the centre-left opposition and unions that had championed them.

Official data from about half of the polling stations showed slightly less than 30% of eligible voters had cast their ballots at the end of two days of voting, far short of the 50% plus one of the electorate needed to make the vote legally binding.

The outcome is a blow for the coalition of centre-left opposition parties, civil society groups and the CGIL trade union behind the referendum questions, and a win for Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni who strongly opposed them.

Meloni and her right-wing allies encouraged their supporters to boycott the vote. The prime minister visited a polling station in Rome on Sunday but did not cast a vote, a tactic she had indicated that she would adopt.

Opposition forces had hoped that latching on to the issues of labour rights and Italy's demographic woes could help them challenge Meloni, something they have struggled to do since she came to power in 2022.

"The opposition wanted to turn the referendum into a vote on the Meloni government. The response is very clear: the government emerges from this stronger and the opposition is weaker", said Giovanbattista Fazzolari, a cabinet undersecretary and a close aide to Meloni.

LOW TURNOUT

One of the five referendums was about reducing the period of residence required to apply for Italian citizenship by naturalisation to five years from 10 years, which according to organisers would have affected about 2.5 million people.

In a country suffering a sharp decline in the birth rate, some economists believe attracting more foreigners is vital to boosting an anaemic economy, while rights groups campaigned for a "Yes" vote to promote the integration of migrant workers.

The other four referendum questions concerned a reversal of labour market liberalisations introduced a decade ago, and a broadening of liability rules on accidents at work for companies relying on contractors and subcontractors.

"Whether just above 30% or just below 30%, this is a low figure, below the expectations and targets set by the promoters," YouTrend's Lorenzo Pregliasco told Italian news channel SkyTG24.

According to data analysis late on Sunday by the YouTrend polling agency, turnout was higher in wealthier northern and central regions and in larger cities, and lower in the less developed south.

A higher turnout was also observed in areas where leftist parties performed well in the last general elections and in the 2024 European elections, YouTrend said.

Source: Reuters

The U.S. Trade Representative softened fee proposals for non-U.S.-built LNG tankers and car carriers amid its ongoing effort to counter China's dominance on the high seas and revive domestic shipbuilding.

The revised proposal, unveiled by USTR on Friday, would remove LNG-related penalties for failing to export a percentage of fuel on U.S.-owned ships. It also would reduce fees when foreign-built car carriers visit domestic ports and exempt those vessels when they are serving the U.S. military.

USTR previously exempted ships carrying U.S. exports as well as operators of smaller ships from port fees originally aimed at China-linked vessels. The agency also exempted vessels that service the Great Lakes, Caribbean and U.S. territories.

"This is a step in the right direction, and we look forward to working with USTR on a solution that ensures U.S. LNG remains competitive on the global stage," Rob Jennings, vice president of natural gas markets for the American Petroleum Institute, said on Monday.

USTR caught the liquified natural gas industry off guard in April with new rules for outbound shipments of that fuel, sparking an outcry.

It also surprised the vehicle carrier industry with a plan to impose port fees on all non-U.S.-built vessels in that segment - including U.S.-flagged and U.S.-crewed ships admitted to the U.S. Maritime Security Program (MSP) that supports Washington's military readiness.

USTR on Friday removed language saying it could suspend LNG export licenses until its rules for moving a percentage of outgoing shipments on U.S.-built and operated vessels were met.

On April 17, USTR said LNG producers would have to transport 1% of their exports on U.S.-built ships starting in April 2029. That percentage would escalate to 15% in April 2047 and beyond.

The World Shipping Council, whose members vehicle carriers such as Norway's Wallenius Wilhelmsen, did not immediately comment on the revisions.

The vehicle carrier fee effective October 14 was to be $150 per car capacity of a non-U.S.-built ship known as roll-on/roll-offs, or RoRos. Typical RoRos have capacity to carry nearly 5,000 vehicles.

In the revision, USTR lowered that fee to $14 per net ton. It also exempted vessels in the MSP, as well as U.S. government cargo - matching previous exemptions made for other vessel segments.

Companies with ships in the MSP include Florida-based American Roll-On, Roll-Off Carrier Group, a U.S.-flag operator of vehicle carriers that is part of Wallenius Wilhelmsen Group, which did not immediately comment.

Source: Yahoo Finance

Australia’s consumer confidence edged up in June as the conflicting forces of lower interest rates and cool inflation ran up against slow growth and ongoing trade upheavals to place households in a holding pattern.

Sentiment advanced 0.5% to 92.6 points, a Westpac Banking Corp. survey showed Tuesday. While better, the result still means pessimists outweigh optimists with the dividing line at 100.

“The overall mood remains broadly unchanged with consumers stuck in a holding pattern of ‘cautious pessimism’,” Matthew Hassan, Westpac’s head of Australian macro forecasting, said in a statement. “The detail shows two clear opposing forces at work.”

The Reserve Bank lowered borrowing costs last month for the second time this year to take its cash rate to 3.85%, a two-year low. It’s expecting a revival in household spending to help drive faster growth later this year, after data last week showed the economy moving at a crawl in the first three months of 2025.

Trade talks between the US and China will continue into a second day, according to a US official, as the two sides look to ease tensions over shipments of technology and rare earth elements.

The meeting is aimed at restoring confidence that both sides are living up to commitments made in Geneva, when Washington and Beijing agreed to lower crippling tariffs for 90 days to allow time to address a trade imbalance that the Trump administration blames on an unfair playing field.

In Australia, where consumption accounts for about half of the economy, households’ attitudes toward purchases are closely monitored by policymakers.

“The most promising improvement in the month was around consumer attitudes towards major purchases,” Hassan said. “This component has been the main one to capture the effects of the ‘cost of living’ pressures bearing down on consumers with average index reads over the last three years a whopping 40pts below historical averages.

“That long period of deep pessimism is finally coming to an end.”

Source: Bloomberg Europe

A federal appeals court is closer to ruling on whether to keep most of President Donald Trump’s global tariffs in place longer while the legal battle over them continues.

The Justice Department on Monday asked the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit to extend its earlier short-term pause on a lower court’s May 28 ruling that most of Trump’s tariffs are illegal. The government said that the ruling harmed the president’s ability to conduct foreign policy.

The Federal Circuit could now rule at any time on whether or not to pause the order for the duration of an appeals process that’s likely to last months. The administration has also indicated that it will go to the US Supreme Court if the appeals court lifts the current hold.

Source: Bloomberg Europe

Source: Reuters

Trade talks between the US and China will continue into a second day, according to a US official, as the two sides look to ease tensions over shipments of technology and rare earth elements.

Representatives for both nations ended their first day of negotiations in London after more than six hours of discussions at Lancaster House, a 19th century mansion near Buckingham Palace. The talks concluded around 8 p.m. London time. The advisers will meet again Tuesday at 10 a.m. in the British capital, the official said.

The US delegation was led by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer. The presence of Lutnick, the former Cantor Fitzgerald CEO, underscored the importance that export controls are playing in these discussions.

The Chinese delegation was led by Vice Premier He Lifeng.

The US signaled a willingness to remove restrictions on some tech exports in exchange for assurances that China is easing limits on rare earth shipments, which are critical to a wide array of energy, defense and technology products, including smartphones, fighter jets and nuclear reactor rods. China accounts for almost 70% of the world’s production of rare earths.

Specifically, the Trump administration is prepared to remove a recent spate of measures targeting chip design software, jet engine parts, chemicals and nuclear materials, people familiar with the matter said. Many of those actions were taken in the past few weeks as tensions flared between the US and China.

The Trump administration expects that “after the handshake” in London, “any export controls from the US will be eased and the rare earths will be released in volume” by China, Kevin Hassett, head of the White House’s National Economic Council, told CNBC earlier in the day Monday.

Hassett’s comments from Washington were the clearest signal yet that the US is willing to offer such a concession, though he added that the US would stop short of including the most sophisticated chips made by Nvidia Corp. used to power artificial intelligence.

“The very, very high-end Nvidia stuff is not what I’m talking about,” Hassett said, adding that restrictions would not be lifted on the Nvidia H2O chips that are used to train AI services. “I’m talking about possible export controls on other semiconductors which are also very important to them.”

Chinese shares trading in Hong Kong entered a bull market, as some investors expressed hope the talks signaled a cooling of trade tensions. In the US, traders drove stocks higher, with the S&P 500 within 2% of its February peak.

The first round of negotiations since delegations from the countries met a month ago is aimed at restoring confidence that both sides are living up to commitments made in Geneva. During those discussions, Washington and Beijing agreed to lower crippling tariffs for 90 days to allow time to address a trade imbalance that the Trump administration blames on an unfair playing field.

A phone call last week between President Donald Trump and his counterpart Xi Jinping appeared to give fresh momentum to reaching a deal. US-China trade tensions escalated this year as Trump hiked duties on Chinese goods, prompting retaliation from Beijing. That’s led to pain in both economies, including uncertainties for businesses trying to navigate sudden changes in trade policy.

Source: Bloomberg Europe